Beat Movie Guide

Beat Movie Guide

With not one, not two, but three movies based on Jack Kerouac books coming out this year (2013) it makes sense to make sense of the world of cinematic dramatizations based on Beat works.

Since real people are given different fictional names in every movie, for clarity I’ve stuck with the original names of the people the characters are based on.

Pull My Daisy — 1959 — the definitive and only authentic Beat dramatization — a filming of act 3 of Jack Kerouac’s “The Beat Generation” play/screenplay; perhaps the single greatest Beat Generation creation ever made — Jack’s narration is the best audio he ever laid down, set to a jazzy world-beat score, and the Beat badboys filmed in their prime by a visionary cameraman, in a typical New York City apartment where the whole movement was born — based on a real event at the Cassady’s house in Los Gatos in the summer of 1955, which can be read about in detail in ch. 45 of Carolyn Cassady’s “Off The Road” — dir. by Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie — starring Gregory Corso as Jack; Allen Ginsberg as himself; Larry Rivers as railroad Milo / Neal Cassady; and Delphine Seyrig as Carolyn. B&W, 26 min.
* This once uber-rare film is now on the interwebs and you can experience the entire masterpiece here or here.

The Beat Generation — 1959 — rape-centric Hollywood exploitation B-movie that’s about as pro Beat as “Reefer Madness” is pot; no connection to the Beats except the title and negative stereotypes — dir. by Charles Haas — on the up-side it actually opens with a Louis Armstrong performance! and he also shows up playing again in the middle, including some dialog. It has a crazy cast including Jackie Coogan (best known as The Kid in Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” and later Uncle Fester in “The Addams Family” TV show — and to give you an idea of the authenticity here — he’s also credited with being the beatnik “dialogue coach”!); and speaking of Charlie Chaplin, it also features The Little Tramp’s first son Charles Chaplin Jr. in a bit part as the Lover Boy (the beatnik talking on the payphone trying to pick up a girl); and speaking of famous actor’s children it also has Robert Mitchum’s dead-ringer son James as the hip-talkin framed badguy; and Bing Crosby’s niece Cathy Crosby completely out of place singing in a white formal evening gown in a beatnik club; segue to Vampira as the female Beat poet with a live rat on her shoulder; and most noticeably Mamie Van Doren (the stage name of the B-movie Marilyn Monroe who Jack actually described his first wife Edie as looking like in Vanity of Duluoz, and no relation to the esteemed poet/author/editor/ Columbia professor Mark Van Doren or his quiz show scandalized son Charles). And she delivers the best line of the movie, purring — “Would you rather be dead with him, or alive with me.” Besides the curious cast, in all its kitschiness and negative cliches it actually has some redeeming themes of sexism, domestic violence, and a subplot and discussions about abortion in the case of rape (which was still illegal everywhere at the time) — but of course it’s just a set-up for an on-screen Catholic sermon. B&W, 94 min.
Here’s the entire movie on YouTube (at least until it’s pulled down).
Here’s a 4-minute clip, and another one minute.

Beat Girl (aka Wild For Kicks) — 1960 — Britain’s entry in the cheap exploitation beatnik field; no actual connection to the Beats except the title and base stereotyping — dir. by Edmond Greville — curious for its bit parts by a young Christopher Lee and Oliver Reed. B&W, 79 min.
Here’s the entire movie on YouTube.

Beany & Cecil — Wildman of Wildsville — 1961 — Since no film festival would be complete without some cartoon shorts — take a break from the serious and enjoy this satire of all things Beat — with none other than the immortal Lord Buckley voicing the lead beatnik, Go Man Van Gogh.
Full six-minute cartoon here.

Route 66 (one-hour B&W dramatic TV series) — 1960–64, airing Friday nights on CBS — obviously “inspired by” / ripped-off from Jack’s “On The Road” — two young men (an outgoing orphan and a bookish New England Ivy Leaguer who recently lost his father, hmmm), drive around the country having adventures while looking for the meaning of life (Hollywood is nothing if not original!) — shot almost entirely on location around North America — 3/4 of the episodes written by show creator Sterling Silliphant (who’d later win an Oscar for writing “In The Heat Of The Night”) — starring George Maharis and Martin Milner (who narrowly beat out Robert Redford for the role). B&W, 50 min.
Here’sthe opening of the very first episode — with George Kennedy and 2001’s Keir Dullea! Here’s part 2, part 3, part 4, and the conclusion.
Here’s the entire 3rd episode — all filmed in New Orleans in 1960! Unreal footage!
There’s tons of other entire full episodes on YouTube.

Heart Beat— 1980 — based on an early pre-publication excerpt from Carolyn Cassady’s “Off The Road,” who has never wavered in her utter disdain for the production and refers to it as “Heart Break”; there’s loads of Beat history inaccuracies, and it’s definitely a liberty-taking fictionalization, but it’s also a capturing of the era, and the acting and casting are pretty good; it’s commonly praised for its art direction, period details and Jack Nitzsche’s cool score, and criticized for its melodramatically silly script; also notable for 3 weird cameos: Jack’s daughter Jan is the smoking girl in a white dress sitting in the cafe/bar around 11 minutes into the movie in the scene that begins with Cassady/Nolte tipping out of his chair onto the floor; John Larroquette in his first ever film role playing an obnoxious TV talk show host interviewing Jack; and director David Lynch appears briefly as a painter — dir. by John Byrum — starring Sissy Spacek as Carolyn; Nick Nolte as Neal; John Heard as Jack; Ray Sharkey as Allen; and Ann Dusenberry as LuAnne. Color, 110 min.
Here’s the opening of the movie followed by a collage of different scenes.
Here’s the first 15 minutes (1) that comes after the opening sequence.
and then the next 15 minutes (2) — Jack writing, hanging with LuAnne; then with Allen in NY and SF.
and then the next 15 minutes (3) — at the jazz club in SF, Neal & LuAnne, Neal proposes to Carolyn.
and the next 13 minutes (4) — moving to the suburbs, meeting the neighbors, Jack shipping out then returns to the Cassadys, brings black hooker home.
and the next 13 minutes (5) — Jack & Carolyn go for it, the 3 of them living together.
and the next 13 minutes (6) — Jack sells OTR and gets famous and drunk.
and the next 11 minutes (7) — Beatnik cafe cliche, Neal gets busted, then with the Pranksters.
and the final 6 minutes (8) — final scenes and credits.

Note: Jack’s only child Jan appears in the “first 15 minutes (1)” clip in the white-walled café/bar scene that begins with the Nolte/Cassady character tipping over out of his chair starting at 8:15. Jan is the girl in the white dress sitting along the wall on the right smoking. In her book “Trainsong” she wrote in chapter 22, “In September I was offered the job as an extra in Heart Beat, a movie about my father’s menage-a-trois with the Cassadys. … The Acropolis Cafe was just the place for a beat generation coffeehouse scene: a Greek restaurant in downtown L.A., unchanged since the thirties. … My job was to sit at a table where two guys were playing chess: to follow their moves like a cat, to look mildly bored, … and to puff like mad on Camels to produce a thick, smoke-filled atmosphere.” If you watch it on a screen larger than a computer’s, you can see that the two men at the table with her are indeed playing chess — especially visible in the 3rd and final shot of them, starting 9:37. Further, you can see a photograph of The Acropolis Café right here, confirming that this scene was shot at that location and therefore is the scene with Jan.

Naked Lunch — 1991 — successfully surreal adaptation of the Burroughs novel, and the first remotely popular “Beat” movie; shot entirely in Toronto by Canadian director David Cronenberg, it swept the Canadian film awards taking home 7 Genies, including Best Picture, Director and Cinematography — starring Peter Weller as Burroughs; Judy Davis as Joan Vollmer; Nicholas Campbell as Jack; Michael Zeiniker as Allen; and Roy Scheider as Burroughs’ recurring Dr. Benway character. Color, 115 min.
You can see the trailer for the movie here.
Here’s the opening credits artwork.
Here’s a 3 minute clip where Bill Lee is having a conversation of telepathic conversation.

The Last Time I Committed Suicide— 1997 — a really well made film based on Neal Cassady’s famous and influential Joan Anderson/Cherry Mary letter to Jack (written Dec. 1950) about events around Christmas 1945 before Neal had met any of the other soon-to-be Beats — dir. by Stephen Kay — starring Thomas Jane as Neal. Also starring Keanu Reeves, whose commitment got it funded, playing a sorta kinda Jack-like buddy; and an early film appearance by Adrien Brody as a sorta kinda Allen character, even though Neal didn’t know either of them when the story took place; as well as a young Gretchen Mol as Cherry Mary, and Clair Forlani as Joan. Color and B&W, 92 min.Interesting tidbits:
— Carolyn Cassady said this Thomas Jane portrayal was the closest to Neal she ever saw on screen.
— the complete 16,000-word letter that a fragment of which this movie is based on was lost in the mid-1950s — but was miraculously found intact in 2012 in an old box that had been stored since being rescued from the Sausalito publisher Golden Goose’s garbage when it folded in 1955.
— it’s got a bitchin soundtrack, both snappy original compositions by Tyler Bates, plus Bird, Dizz, Monk, Mingus, Ella & others.
— it’s got shades of Michael Polish’s “Big Sur” with its heavy use of voiceovers of the original text (although with additions and edits) and the cinematic details thereof.
— it’s like Walter Salles’s “On The Road” in that it expands upon the existing text using other Beat writings, except in Suicide’s case they also completely make stuff up like adding Jack-like and Allen-like characters (played by Reeves and Brody) to a story set before they ever met.
— the fairly acclaimed Bobby Bukowski (no relation) is the cinematographer.
— it was filmed in Ogden Utah filling in for old Denver at last.
Here’s the official trailer.
Here’s a cooler longer more Beat trailer.
Here’s Neal and his friend Harry (Keanu Reeves) drunk at a bar.
Here’s a great sequence where Neal gets out of jail and goes for a run — featuring the swingin’ soundtrack by Tyler Bates who went on to score a ton of other movies.

The Great Sex Letter— 2006 — a visual dramatization set to a reading of Neal Cassady’s letter of March 1947 to Jack Kerouac that Jack dubbed “the great sex letter.” Despite the film’s inaccuracies — like the person receiving it appears to be Allen not Jack — this low-budget 7-minute indi effort is notable for being the earliest Beat writing ever interpreted on film. The film begins in silence, then the only audio you hear is the reading of Neal’s words set to music by Charles Mingus. Color, 7 min.
You can experience the complete short film here.

Neal Cassady — 2007 — a well-intentioned low-budget ($1 million) dramatization beginning in B&W with Jack & Neal in the ’40s, then goes to color for the late ’50s and psychedelic Kesey years; it would be easy to call it bad, and many of people do, but there’s lots of interesting little accurate details — dir. by Noah Buschel — starring Tate Donovan as Neal (who a lot of people including John Cassady and me think did a pretty good job); Amy Ryan as Carolyn; Glenn Fitzgerald as Kerouac; and Chris Bauer as Kesey. B&W and color, 80 min.
Here’s the trailer.

Big Sur— 2013 — the second major Kerouac novel filmed in as many years — and it’s the 180 degree counterpoint vision to his optimism of “On The Road“; hauntingly shot on location in Big Sur and S.F. with the majority of the dialogue being voiceover of Jack’s own Big Sur prose — dir. by Michael Polish — starring Jean-Marc Barr as Kerouac; Anthony Edwards as Ferlinghetti; Josh Lucas as Neal; Radha Mitchell as Carolyn; Balthazar Getty as McClure; Patrick Fischler as Lew Welch; Henry Thomas as Philip Whalen; and Stana Katic as Lenore Kandel. Color, 81 min.
Here’s the trailer.
Or you can watch the whole movie here.

Kill Your Darlings — 2013 — Allen Ginsberg’s coming of age story from entering Columbia through the David Kammerer killing, which was the subject of the early Kerouac/Burroughs co-authored novel “And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks”; the film’s title comes from the William Faulkner line, “In writing, you must kill your darlings,” meaning you sometimes have to delete your favorite passage for the betterment of the story — dir. by first-timer John Krokidas — starring Daniel Radcliffe as Ginsberg; Dane DeHann as Lucien Carr; Jack Huston as Kerouac; Ben Foster as Burroughs; Michael C. Hall as David Kammerer; Kyra Sedgwick as Lucien’s mother; Elizabeth Olson as Edie Parker; and Jennifer Jason Leigh and David Cross as Ginsberg’s parents. Color, 104 min.

There’s a detailed review from its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival here.

The Subterraneans — 2013 — German indie production — second adaptation of the novel after the disastrous Hollywood version in 1960 — directed, edited and screenplay adaptation by Simon Benelhady — Oskar Brown as Leo/Jack; Taneshia Abt as Mardou/Arlene Lee — B&W.

Kill Your Darlings — set in 1944 (released 2013)The Last Time I Committed Suicide — set in 1945 (released 1997)Heart Beat — set in 1946-66 (released 1980)On The Road — set in 1947-49 (released 2013)Beat — set in 1951 (released 2000)The Subterraneans — set in 1953 (released 1960 and 2013)Pull My Daisy — set in 1955 (released 1959)Big Sur — set in 1960 (released 2013)

28 responses so far ↓

Brian. this is awesome!! I’ve been trying to get this kind of information — thanks so much!
And speaking of beat…beatitude…beatific…I just watched “Pull My Daisy” for the first time…and I have to agree with everyone who feels that this movie says everything we need to know.

Even I didn’t know there were this many! How do you find this stuff??!!
It was so weird to watch Route 66 on Friday nights and know it was supposed to be Neal and Uncle Jack. We got a kick out it, though.